Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Avoid
the crowds, get a babysitter and stay home for a romantic dinner for two this
Valentine's day.Start your meal with a
special dish you would find in a fine restaurant; Shrimp Bisque.

Can
be made ahead (day before) for easy, stress-free dinner.

Shrimp
Bisque

{Original
recipe by Susan Neal}

Stock

1 lb large shrimp in shell

1 Qt (32 oz) Seafood Stock

·If you prefer a less 'seafood' taste, you can use
vegetable stock or even chicken stock

1/2 large onion, chopped coarsely

1 large bay leaf

water

The base of this soup
homemade seafood stock.It's surprising
how much flavor is in the shrimp shells.I always buy shrimp in shell and freeze them for making this soup at a
later date.

Saute onion on medium heat in
a Tbsp of olive oil for 4-5 minutes until soft (do not brown).Add shrimp shells.mix and cook for another 5 minutes until the
shells have turned pink.Add stock and
bay leaf.Add additional water until
shrimp shells are just covered.Bring to
a boil and then simmer (lid on) for 15 minutes.

While this is cooking, start
soup.All these ingredients will be
pureed in a blender, so cut so vegetable pieces are about the same size, but
they don't have to be perfect or small.

Soup

2 large carrots, cut into
1/2" chunks

1 large rib of celery, cut
into 1/2" chunks

2 leeks, cleaned and sliced
(use the white part and about 2" of the green part).

bunch of fresh Thyme (left on
stems...just throw it in the pot!)

2 cloves garlic, chopped
coarsely

1 lemon (zest and juice)

2 Tbsp Flour

1 cup tomato sauce (I use my roasted tomato saucethat I made in the summer, but you can use any tomato
product, sauce, stewed, fresh etc...).

1 cup half & half (or
cream)

2 tsp. kosher salt

dash or two of cayenne pepper

In a large Dutch oven or pot,
add a few Tbsp of olive oil and 1 Tbsp of butter.Add carrots, celery and leek.Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.Add garlic and continue cooking for another 5
minutes.Add lemon zest.

Strain stock into pot (discard shrimp shells, onion and bay leaf).

Add 1 cup Tomato sauce and
mix.Cook an additional 5 minutes until
carrots are soft (this will large depend on the size you cut them).

Carefully place soup into a
blender (be sure to vent blender lid, as contents will be hot) and blend on
high until very smooth.Put back in
pot.Season to taste, but approx. 2 tsp
salt and a few dashes of cayenne.You
can also add lemon juice, a tsp at a time, to taste.

Add cream.This can also be to your taste.You could add milk for a lighter version or
cream for a very rich version, or half & half for a nice compromise.If you like a milder seafood taste, add more
cream, or less for a more intense seafood taste.

Reserve 2 whole shrimp for
each serving (you should get 4 large servings or 8 smaller servings).

Chop the rest of the shrimp
into small pieces and saute in some hot butter with a little salt &
pepper.Cook very quickly and place into
soup.

Saute whole shrimp just
before serving.

To serve

You can serve soup and place
whole shrimp on top with a sprinkling of green herbs (my preference is chives,
but parsley and even cilantro will work), but a really nice touch is to serve
the whole shrimp in a puff pastry bowl (Vol au vent).Not only does this look appetizing, but the
pastry pairs nicely with the acidity of the soup.If you don't do this, make sure to have some
nice bread to eat with it.

You can buy pre-made
Vol-au-vent pastry in the freezer section of your grocery store, or you can
make it easily on your own with pre-made puff pastry dough.I found a great youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn9jqA6Sh1I)
on how to make them.The only thing I
did differently is not pull out the center...I just pushed it in a bit, as I
wanted the shrimp to stand up and not sink in the bowl too much.

Pour soup into a bowl (but
not all the way to the top, about two thirds.Place Vol-au-vent in the center and place whole sautéed shrimp in the
center.